NHL realignment now official: Wild card playoffs, four divisions for next season

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NHL realignment now official: Wild card playoffs, four divisions for next season

The NHL Board of Governors has approved realignment for the 2013-14 season, sending the Detroit Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets to the Eastern Conference, the Winnipeg Jets to the Western Conference and reformatting the League into four divisions – 16 teams in the East, 14 in the West.

This follows the NHLPA signing off on the plan last week, with the option to “re-evaluate” the format after a minimum of three seasons. So for at least the next two seasons, the NHL will look like this. (Barring, you know, any potential relocations. Like, say, if one team was playing a desert and couldn’t find an owner. Just spit-ballin’ here.)

From the NHL:
So the Jets leave the Southeast for what amounts to the Central, along with the Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars. The Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks join the “Pacific”. The Blue Jackets, Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes join the “Atlantic”. The Red Wings, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers join the “Northeast”.

Here are the essentials on realignment …

• For the first time since 1997-98, all 30 teams will visit every NHL arena at least once per season. Congrats, Western Canada: You get your Sidney Crosby fix!
• Here’s the playoff format for next season, via Dan Rosen of NHL.com:
The Stanley Cup Playoffs will still consist of 16 teams, eight in each conference, but it will be division-based and a wild-card system has been added as a new wrinkle.

The top three teams in each division will make-up the first 12 teams in the playoffs. The remaining four spots will be filled by the next two highest-placed finishers in each conference, based on regular-season points and regardless of division. It will be possible, then, for one division to send five teams to the postseason while the other sends three.

The seeding of the wild-card teams within each divisional playoff will be determined on the basis of regular-season points. The division winner with the most points in the conference will be matched against the wild-card team with the lowest number of points; the division winner with the second-most points in the conference will play the wild-card team with the second fewest points.

The teams finishing second and third in each division will play in the first round of the playoffs. The winners of each series will play for the divisional championship.

So there you go. All we’re left with now are deciding the division names (Patrick Adams, Norris, Smythe … done and done).
And, of course, deciding when the NHL should expand to even things out. Oh hi Seattle …

Looks like they left room for two teams in the West.... very likely that Seattle will be one of the two.

My guess would be Seattle and Milwaukee.

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Ben Askren

Does Milwaukee have a towns and small cities near it? I ask because according to the NHL they would need a population minimum of 750k but Google puts the population at 600k. But than again there was some serious talks about my city looking to get a team and we are only 240k but we have a lot of towns and small cities within an hour drive